Route Matrix with Traffic

When using route matrix, can travel times be calculated based on current traffic conditions? I know this can be done for a route request but I tried to do it with a route matrix request and it didn't seem to do anything.

No problem. This had been discussed internally at one point and I believe the issue is the fact that most of our users want general distances and times between a number of origins and destinations and results using real-time traffic would be valid only for the general timeframe in which the request is submitted (i.e., if you submit the request at 4:00PM on a Friday, your results would be stale by Saturday morning). Either way, I will certainly pass on this request.
If you don't mind sharing, can you tell me more about your use case and why you would like to see the real time traffic included in the calculation?

So sorry this reply is coming so long after you got back to me. I put the project that I was working on that uses mapquest on the back burner and haven't checked out the forum in a while.

I am trying to use mapquest and route matrix to find how far a person could travel in a given time. Currently the way route matrix works the returned distance values are useful but not so much the time values. If there happens to be very little to no traffic the time values will be accurate, but in more populated areas like cities the times are very off. This would make the information I return to a user not as useful (it would return telling them they can travel 8 miles in 10 minutes but really, with the current conditions, they could only get 3 miles in 10 minutes).

So the issue that you brought up is definitely valid, but the way the product I am making would work is by submitting a request for the information each time it is used. I would never store the information for more than a few minutes.

As it has been a few months and I have not seen any changes made regarding traffic times with route matrix responses, I am wondering if this is still something that is being considered? Or should I look elsewhere for what I am trying to achieve?

I'm not aware of any plan to include this functionality. Yet.
Another reason this is not already there is that the route matrix is a simplified version of the route algorithm. Routing is a very resource hungry function and to keep response times reasonable several limits have been put on the service. Some are documented in the user guide like the location limits and mileage limits, but others are not called out in the documentation like the lack of traffic influence or different road type penalties. I wouldn't expect to see this functionality in the near future, but will update my post here if I find out differently.

Hate to resurrect an old thread, but has anything changed? I tried affecting realTime by including a useTraffic parameter but it doesn't seem to have an effect; my duration traveled between two locations seems to be the lowest possible duration.

My use case is that I have a small microcontroller that polls time traveled for my commute home. If the duration is below a certain amount, then the LED attached to the controller turns on. It's a visual notification of traffic conditions that tells me whether or not I can go home.

My first draft works but it's using the Google Maps API and the Maps API does not include traffic conditions unless you have a business account. Can I do this using MapQuest's API?

The problem i'm facing right now is, that the delivered travel times are based on the optimum conditions.

Is there any plan to include historic traffic conditions like Google does? I'm imagining something like handing over a parameter to the API to choose between optimum conditions and assumed conditions based on historic data.

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